


As One

by aishahiwatari



Series: McKirk shorts [8]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Family, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Schmoop, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 02:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18907504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aishahiwatari/pseuds/aishahiwatari
Summary: Leonard brings Jim back to spend a couple of their weeks off at his family home. He’s hoping to use the opportunity to move their relationship into something more than friends.First he needs to get five spare minutes alone with Jim to do it.





	As One

**Author's Note:**

> So I just invented Leonard a family for the purpose of this self-indulgent mess of a fic. Not to be taken too seriously.

“So what do you two have planned for the day?” Caitlin asks, over the breakfast table. She looks at both Leonard and Jim, but her gaze settles on the one she’s designated the easy target. Leonard is given no chance to interrupt Jim’s unsuspecting response.

“Just thought we’d check out the farmers’ market. Maybe go for a walk through town.”

Leonard resists the urge to put his head in his hands. That is their plan, but it’s one he’d really like to enjoy just with Jim. They’re visiting his family for pretty much the entire two weeks of their spring vacation from the Academy, but their attention has been monopolised the entire time. It seems like whenever they try and do something alone, his sister Caitlin wants to go to some local sightseeing spot that Jim simply has to accompany her to; his mother needs help preparing dinner; Caitlin’s daughter Jessica wants to learn how to fish.

That one Leonard doesn’t begrudge. Jess is an incredibly sweet kid and she adores Jim. But even Caitlin’s partner Alex wants some help working on a classic car, and the neighbours need someone to fix a leak in their roof. It’s his final year at the Academy, and he and Jim have a deeply unhealthy, codependent relationship that makes them both better people. He had sort of been hoping that by bringing Jim to meet his family, by finally being able to show him how secure their existing relationship is, he might have been able to push for more.

He wants to date Jim. Not the typical, drawn out courting ritual that neither of them have been able to master, but just a slight sideways shift. Basically keeping their relationship exactly the same only he won’t have to resist touching when Jim stands too close at his side, and he’ll be able to kiss him to shut him up, and he’ll be able to crawl into bed at night to feel Jim’s warm body, soft and relaxed between his sheets. He wants it so badly he aches with it, and he suspects -hopes, dreams- that Jim might want that too.

Except Leonard hasn’t had a free fucking minute to mention any of that, because his family are too busy trying to make Jim feel included to notice that Leonard is ready to strangle each and every one of them.

“Oh, that sounds fun! Jess, would you like to come to the farmers’ market today? We could get something nice for dinner.”

Leonard closes his eyes, just for a moment, and sighs.

-

“You alright?” Jim asks him later, as they walk side by side. It should be perfect, except Jess is holding Jim’s hand on the opposite side of him. At least she’s a quiet kid who doesn’t feel the need to point out every single object of remote interest on their walk, but it still means Leonard can’t speak freely.

And what could he possibly say if he did? Jim has never had a loving family of which to speak, is clearly enjoying every moment he spends around Leonard’s.

“Just a little tired. Getting up at the same time every day drives me nuts.”

When Jim laughs, his fingers brush Leonard’s, not quite solidly enough to make it feel intentional. “Never thought you’d miss those clinic shifts.”

“Well, now, let’s not go that far.”

“When have I ever gone too far with anything?”

It’s pretty difficult to make a cough sound like Kobayashi Maru, but Leonard makes an heroic effort regardless. Jim grins at him. He’s so fucking gorgeous it feels like staring into the sun to look at him, sometimes. Blinding and impossible.

“I’m doing it again when we get back.”

“Oh, God.”

“I’ll beat it this time, Bones, you’ll see.”

“You said that last time.”

“Why do you call him that?” Jessica pipes up, tugging on Jim’s hand.

“Just something he said the first time we met. I don’t even remember what, exactly. I just thought his real name sounded too stuffy, so I picked something else.”

“Mom calls dad honey. Is it like that?”

Leonard steps just ahead of Jim to give her a dark look. She’s way too old to be plausibly asking those questions, but Jim has already said that he doesn’t know any young kids and she’s taken full advantage. She grins at him slyly.

Jim’s not nearly as dumb as he pretends to be, sometimes, though. “Well, if it were, he’d call me something back, right?”

“I call you plenty of things.” Leonard mutters, just loud enough for Jim to hear and beam at him, bumping their shoulders companionably.

“What does he call you?” Jess asks. She’s not getting a damn ice cream, Leonard decides. 

“Jess honey, don’t be rude.” Caitlin says, vaguely and far, far too late. She’s looking at something on her comm, a few steps behind the rest of them. 

“But mom!”

“He just calls me Jim,” Jim says, with a deceptively small smile Leonard knows is genuine. They exchange a little look where more passes between them than words, and it makes Jess roll her eyes.

“This is why nana makes you sleep in separate rooms,“ she mutters, and Jim’s look turns into a Dear God Help Me with barely a moment of hesitation. 

Leonard can’t help but laugh. At least he’s not the only one suffering. He lets his fingers brush Jim’s in wordless support somehow stops himself there, manages not to reach up, to cradle his neck and draw him into a soft, sweet kiss that says everything he can’t.

Jim flushes as though he did. 

-

“They like me,” Jim says, later, when Leonard resorts to sneaking into his bedroom after everyone else has gone to sleep. He sounds awestruck, far more surprised than anyone else would have expected. Leonard knows Jim well enough, though, to know that he expects people to be interested in him, but not to like him.

“Of course they do. You’re very likeable.”

“That- might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“You don’t need me to say it, Jim.”

Jim’s sat on his bed, leaning against the headboard. He’s relaxed, a little tired. Being around people gets him amped up, Leonard thinks, but he crashes hard. Leonard’s leaning back against the door, but at his words, Jim throws back the covers and stands. He’s only wearing sweatpants, and he looks really, really fucking good. Leonard had always thought he’d build up a resistance to that over time, but he’s more in love than ever. 

“What if I do?” It’s a challenge, but a more cautious one than Jim might usually make. He’s getting closer, tiny steps, biting his lip, eyes on Leonard’s.

“I brought you back to meet my family. You think I do that for just anyone?”

“They think I’m your boyfriend.”

“Yeah. I didn’t tell them that.”

“What did you tell them?”

“That- I’ve been enjoying my time at the Academy. I’m happier than I’ve been, since I got my divorce. Since long before then. That I got though my aviophobia with the help of someone who means a lot to me. That I want to go up into space with him.”

“Sounds pretty romantic.”

“I wouldn’t know. Not one for all that,” Leonard says, but how he wishes that isn’t true. He wants to give Jim the world, the universe and he thinks he sees that reflected in the beautiful blue eyes that are so close to his. He thinks Jim wants the same thing, reaches out for him, wants to set hands on his waist, pull him in closer, have that warm, solid body pressed against his as they kiss, finally.

“Jim, dear, I brought you fresh towels for the morning!” 

Leonard lets his head drop back against the door. Jim muffles laughter by pressing his face into Leonard’s throat, the ghost of the contact he craves. He raises a hand to rest it flat on Jim’s back, between his shoulder blades, holding him close for just a moment more. Just a little longer. Jim's hair smells like oranges and black pepper, and Leonard breathes it in.

"Hey, ma," he says.

His mother doesn't look nearly surprised enough to see him. She does, however, shoo him out once she's handed Jim his fresh towels.

-

"Oh, you guys are going to the pool? Can I come?" Jess asks, genuinely innocent for a change. Leonard can't bring himself to turn her down, has to spend the afternoon watching Jim flirt with strangers, his body on display, damp with pool water or sweat and glistening.

"Do my back?" Jim does ask him, though, holding a bottle of sunscreen like UV repellant shots haven't been invented.

Leonard gets to touch him, to smooth his palms over that skin, warm from the sun, but he can't press kisses to Jim's hairline like he wants to, can't wrap arms around him and growl warnings in his ear about what will happen if he keeps flirting. He definitely can't suck purpling bite marks into a sun-flushed throat and stake his claim.

It’s very frustrating.

-

“I have to go to the bank, so I can give you guys a ride into town if you like?” Caitlin offers. “It won’t take long. Maybe we could stop by that exhibit on twenty-first century medical practices.”

Leonard does want to see that exhibit. But he’s going to have to stop having breakfast with the family.

-

"How long have you guys been dating, anyway?" Caitlin asks over breakfast the next morning, and Leonard slams his mug down hard enough that coffee spills onto the table.

“We’re not fucking dating, Cait. We’re just friends. Maybe if you left us alone for five fucking minutes I’d get the chance to change that.”

Caitlin stares at him. Leonard does feel terrible, almost immediately. He makes sure he moves slowly when he reaches for a cloth. “I’m sorry, Cait. But- please. This is really important to me. I love you but you are cock-blocking me something awful.”

She stares at him some more. Leonard cleans up his mess while she reboots.

“You mean to tell me you’re not dating that poor boy?”

“I thought I’d let him meet my insane family before he went making any big decisions about that.”

“And he agreed? He must really like you, Leo. He’s been so polite! And the way he is with Jess! You need to keep him!”

“I know that, Cait, I knew that before I got here! And I thought that maybe we could buy some food to make a nice dinner together, or we could spend a little time at the pool, or have a nice lunch together in town, where I could mention it. I tried to get five minutes with him the other night and mom came up with some bullshit about towels.”

“She does like those new towels.” Caitlin does at least look a little guilty when the realisation sinks in.

“I know you’re trying to help, and make him feel welcome,” Leonard concedes too. He sips his cooling coffee.

“Well. We’ll try harder, let you guys get a little time alone together.”

-

“Oh for fucks sake,” Leonard says.

Slightly behind him, Jim comes to an abrupt halt. “Uhh-“

“Just so you know, this is them trying to help.”

“I’d hate to see them trying to sabotage you.”

“Yeah.”

It’s- clear that they mean well. After the already-planned picnic lunch with the family, Caitlin had pointedly distracted everyone else, giving Leonard the opportunity to lean over, to let his fingers just overlap Jim’s enough to be on the wrong side of propriety. “Come to dinner with me tonight.”

“Like- a family thing?”

“Sort of. Just you and me.”

Jim had bitten his lip and nodded. His eyes had been wide and uncertain.

They’re the same, now. Leonard doesn’t really blame him. His family name is still worth something in the town, clearly, and it’s the middle of the week but it’s still impressive and outrageously over the top. The restaurant Leonard had chosen was a family-run joint that served amazing Italian food. It was neither pretentious enough to make Jim uncomfortable, nor casual enough to leave any doubt about Leonard’s intentions.  Or it had been, until someone had phoned ahead and arranged for them to have the place to themselves. There were candles on the single, isolated table in the middle of the room, the owners of the restaurant both standing by, ready to fuss over them.

Leonard knows it’s too much, reaches to lay a hand on Jim’s arm, to try and reassure him. It’s too late.

Jim bolts.

Leonard can’t really blame him.

-

After smoothing things over at the restaurant, he tries the local dive bars first. No luck finding Jim there, but news travels fast in their small town, and there’s a gorgeous young man just checked in at one of the seedier motels on the outskirts.

Leonard doesn’t bother asking if he hit the liquor store first.

It’s easy to get a spare key from the owner, to let himself in. He holds up the bags of food that Mrs and Mrs Giovanni were happy to pack up for him when Jim looks up, gives him the option to refuse.

Sat up against the headboard, drinking what looks like his third beer, Jim reaches out to the bedside table and lifts an unopened bottle in return. He shifts up so that Leonard can sit next to him and start unpacking containers of pizza, lasagna, spaghetti.

“They took the rest down to the homeless shelter. Save wasting it.”

Jim says nothing, but he reaches under the bed and passes over the bottle of bourbon he finds there. Leonard smiles at him as he takes it, exchanging it for a fork.

“There’s dessert, too. Tiramisu.”

It’s Jim’s favourite. Leonard hates it. Coffee-flavoured desserts just encompass the worst of both worlds, in his opinion.

It’s entirely worth it for the way Jim leans up against him as he starts on the lasagna, right out of the foil tray. It’s clear he hasn’t had anything else to eat.

“You wanna stay here tonight?” Leonard asks, after a bite of pizza. 

“I don’t- they tried so hard, and it was such a nice gesture, and I don’t know if I can face them yet. I’ll apologise to them later.”

“Only if they apologise to you first. They should never have sprung that on you like that. I told Caitlin this morning to stay out of it.”

Jim picks at his food, bites his lip, swallows his mouthful and pauses before- “Stay out of what, exactly?”

“You’re gonna make me say it?”

Jim just manages to eat another forkful of lasagna with a coy sort of smile. He knows what’s coming, he has to, but it doesn’t make it any easier for Leonard to actually put the words together. They’ve been dancing around it for ages, each waiting for the other to be the one to take that final step, to close the distance between them. 

In a seedy motel room, eating leftovers, in between drinking bourbon from the bottle, with infomercials on the holo in the background, Leonard does. It’s a simple, chaste kiss, worth more words than he could ever possibly say about Jim and everything he means to him, everything he’s done, everything he wants them to be.

And it's not a romantic meal in a corner of a wonderful restaurant. It's not feeling at home in a warm, cozy kitchen, preparing food that they picked out themselves. It's not even simply being unable to keep their hands off each other for a moment longer as they take dips in the pool.

The kiss should feel like nothing special, either, but that point where they’re connected seems to thrum with energy. Leonard can feel it vibrating through him, giving him life, reminding him just how much he needs this wonderful, damaged, reckless man. Jim is following his lead, not pushing for more, so cautious and hesitant that it makes Leonard want to hunt down everyone who left him with those doubts and find some loopholes in his Hippocratic oath.

Leonard presses a little harder, a little closer, lets his teeth graze Jim’s bottom lip before he pulls back to smile at him. Jim’s staring, like maybe he’s had his eyes open the whole time, like he can’t believe this is happening. Serves him right; Leonard’s never quite been able to believe that a man like Jim even exists.

“Eat your dinner,” Leonard nudges him, kisses his cheek when he turns, makes Jim flush and suppress his involuntary pleased smile. “Then your dessert.” He taps the container he brought, filled with a cursed amalgamation of creamy goodness and espresso-soaked baked goods, and then he leans in to kiss and bite, just gently at the unmarred expanse of Jim’s throat. “And then I’ll have mine.”

-

Jim snorts, afterward, laid out on his back, naked and flushed, chest littered with the bite marks Leonard could no longer resist inflicting. “Probably best we weren’t at your mom’s house for that.”

“Yeah, she’d go nuts about all the tomato sauce we got on the sheets.”

The look Jim gives him then is sidelong, but he’s failing to hide his amusement. Leonard smiles at him and reaches for another slice of pizza. 

-

“Well what the heck took you so long?” Leonard’s mother wants to know, when they return to the house in the morning, sat at the kitchen table, Leonard’s fingers tangled with Jim’s until he has to release them to put his head in his hands. 

 


End file.
